Heat treatment apparatus

- Tokyo Electron Limited

One lot is a group of wafers-to-be-processed in one wafer carrier, and one lot region for one lot is allocated fixed to a holding region of a wafer boat. A variable lot region mode in which lot regions for 4, for example, lots are allocated to the wafer boat. When a lot number is less than 4, or numbers of sheets of wafers-to-be-processed in the respective lots are less than a prescribed number, the lot regions can be compressed, centered on a number of a set holding groove is prepared. On the other hand, in connection with transfer of monitor wafers, a mode in which monitor wafers are transferred to inter-lot regions, and a mode in which numbers of holding grooves can be designated are prepared. The former mode is selected in product monitor, and the latter mode is selected in apparatus monitor. The fixed lot region mode in which the respective lots correspond to their holding regions irrespective of numbers of sheets of wafers in the carriers, and the variable lot region mode in which wafers-to-be-processed are transferred to both sides of a designated number of holding groove can be selected by switches. The fixed lot region mode includes a first fixed lot region mode in which wafers-to-be-processed are held in the same arrangement as in the respective carriers, and a second fixed lot region in which wafers-to-be-processed are held without a vacant stage therebetween in respective lot regions. According to the present invention, because of the above-described constitutions, a heat treatment apparatus for heat treating a number of semiconductor wafers, for example, a vertical heat treatment apparatus, can have high freedom degree in arranging wafers-to-be-processed in the wafer boat, and the semiconductor wafers can be transferred suitably in accordance with kinds of heat treatments.

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Claims

1. A heat treatment apparatus for holding a plurality of substrates-to-be-processed in a holding means, side by side, in a unit of lot and for taking monitor substrates out of an exclusive storing unit by a transfer means and transferring the monitor substrates to the holding means, loading the holding means into a reaction tube of a heating furnace to make a heat treatment on the monitor substrates concurrently with the substrates-to-be-processed, the heat treatment apparatus comprising:

monitor substrate transfer mode selecting means for setting a relative position designating mode and an absolute position designating mode and selecting either of the modes, the relative position designating mode being for allocating lot regions which are substrate-to-be-processed holding regions of lots of one batch processing to a substrate holding region of the holding means, and designating relative positions for monitor substrates, based on the lot regions, and holding the monitor substrates there, the absolute position designating mode being for designating ordinal numbers of stages in the substrate holding region of the holding means and holding the monitor substrates there,
relative position designating means for designating holding positions of the monitor substrates corresponding to the lot regions when the relative position designating mode is selected; and
absolute position designating means for designating ordinal numbers of stages of holding positions of the monitor substrates when the absolute position designating mode is selected.

2. A heat treatment apparatus for holding a plurality of substrates-to-be-processed in a holding means, side by side, in a unit of lot and for taking monitor substrates out of an exclusive storing unit by a transfer means and transferring the same to the holding means, loading the holding means into a reaction tube of a heating furnace to make a heat treatment on the monitor substrates concurrently with the substrates-to-be-processed, the heat treatment apparatus comprising:

substrate-to-be-processed transfer mode selecting means for setting a fixed lot region mode and a variable lot region mode, and selecting either of the modes, the fixed lot region mode being for allocating lot regions for respective lots to a substrate holding region of the holding means, and transferring substrates-to-be-processed of the respective lots to the associated lot regions, the variable lot region mode being for designating an ordinal number of a stage in the substrate holding region of the holding means as a standard position, and transferring the substrates-to-be-processed of all the lots involved in one batch processing to the holding means without a vacant stage therebetween;
monitor substrate transfer mode selecting means for setting a relative position designating mode and an absolute position designating mode, and selecting either of the modes, the relative position designating mode being for designating relative positions based on the allocated lot regions, and holding monitor substrates there, the absolute position designating mode being for designating ordinal numbers of stages of holding positions in the holding region of the holding means;
relative position designating means for designating the lot regions to which the holding positions of the monitor substrates correspond, when the relative position designating mode is selected; and
absolute position designating means for designating ordinal numbers of stages of the holding positions of the monitor substrates when the absolute position designating mode is selected.

3. The heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the relative position designating means is inter-lot region designating means for designating inter-lot regions to which the holding positions of the monitor substrates correspond to.

4. The heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the monitor substrates are either of product monitor substrates for monitoring treated states of the substrates to be processed or apparatus monitor substrates for monitoring states of the apparatus, the relative position designating mode is selected when the product monitor substrates are used in the monitor substrate transfer mode, and the absolute position designating mode is selected when the apparatus monitor substrates are used in the monitor substrate transfer mode.

5. The heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said monitor substrate transfer mode selecting means includes a user interface to provide the selection of either the relative position designating mode or the absolute position designating mode.

6. The heat treatment apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said substrate-to-be-processed transfer mode selecting means includes a user interface to provide the selection of either the fixed lot region mode or the variable lot region mode.

Referenced Cited
U.S. Patent Documents
4938655 July 3, 1990 Asano
5273244 December 28, 1993 Ono
5423503 June 13, 1995 Tanaka et al.
5662469 September 2, 1997 Okase et al.
Patent History
Patent number: 5942012
Type: Grant
Filed: Jun 7, 1996
Date of Patent: Aug 24, 1999
Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited (Tokyo-to)
Inventors: Iwao Kumasaka (Kanagawa-Ken), Yuichi Higuchi (Morioka)
Primary Examiner: David Graybill
Law Firm: Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP Beveridge, DeGrandi, Weilacher & Young Intellectual Property Group
Application Number: 8/663,030
Classifications
Current U.S. Class: 29/2501
International Classification: H01L 2168;